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Reuters: Conservative activist Andrew Breitbart dead at 43

By FZ - Posted on 01 March 2012

-By Alex Dobuzinskis

March 1, 2012- Conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, an influential voice in U.S. Republican politics known for his attacks on liberals and Democrats, died unexpectedly of natural causes in Los Angeles early on Thursday, his family said. He was 43.

Breitbart was walking last night near his Los Angeles home when he collapsed, said his father-in-law, actor Orson Bean.

"He collapsed on the sidewalk and the paramedics were there very quickly and they couldn't revive him," Bean told Reuters in a phone interview.

A friend of Breitbart told Reuters he had a history of heart problems and is believed to have suffered a heart attack.

Breitbart was a lightning rod who relished a role he cast for himself as an embattled conservative on the margins of the mainstream media he called "the Complex." Even so, he gained fans as a frequent guest on television news shows.

His work helped spark a number of prominent news stories in recent years. Those included undercover videos posted on his website about ACORN, a grass-roots group that offered housing assistance and other aid to the poor, and his role in bringing to public attention a sexually suggestive photo that Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner of New York posted through his Twitter page. That scandal eventually led to Weiner's resignation last year.